An Introduction to Music Education Methods
- Kayla Collingwood
- May 7
- 7 min read

What are Kodály, Orff, Suzuki, and Dalcroze - and do you have to choose just one?
Whether you're a parent exploring music lessons for your child, an adult beginner looking to develop your musical skills, a teacher seeking to enrich your practice, or even a professional musician interested in new pedagogical approaches - you may have encountered the names Kodály, Orff, Suzuki and Dalcroze.
We often think of these methods as being for children. However, they can be beneficial at any age and level of experience - they're comprehensive educational philosophies with applications across all ages and skill levels. From early childhood through professional training, these approaches offer valuable insights that can transform how we experience, understand, and create music.
You don't have to commit exclusively to one approach. Most music educators today (including me!) draw from multiple methods, adapting their approach based on learners' needs, goals, and learning environment.
Let's explore each approach - what makes it special, what benefits it offers to different ages, and how it might enhance your musical journey whether you're 5 or 85, beginner or professional.
🎵 Dalcroze Eurhythmics

Created by Swiss musician Émile Jaques-Dalcroze in the early 20th century, this approach puts movement at the heart of music learning. Dalcroze noticed his conservatory students could write music perfectly on paper but struggled with rhythm and expression in performance. His solution was to get them moving - shoes off, bodies active!
What makes it special:
Learning through whole-body movement and physical experience
Develops coordination, musical sensitivity and listening skills simultaneously
Emphasises feeling and experiencing music before analysing it
Builds a natural sense of rhythm that stays with you for life
Benefits for different learners:
For children:
Develops coordination and spatial awareness alongside musical skills
Helps active children channel energy positively through music
Builds confidence through creative expression
Creates lasting neural connections between movement and music
For adult beginners:
Breaks through inhibitions about music-making
Addresses rhythmic challenges that many adult learners face
Provides physical memory for musical concepts
Offers a refreshing alternative to notation-focused learning
For professionals:
Enhances performance through better physical awareness
Improves ensemble skills and responsiveness
Deepens interpretive capabilities and expressivity
Offers tools for teaching complex rhythmic concepts
In practice, Dalcroze work might include walking to show pulse while gesturing to show phrasing, using scarves to express melodic contours, or improvising movements in response to harmonic changes. These embodied experiences create an intuitive understanding of music that enhances both learning and performance at any level.
🧩 Orff Schulwerk

Carl Orff, known for composing "Carmina Burana", believed in making music accessible through play, speech and movement. Working with Gunild Keetman, he developed an approach that starts with natural activities - speaking, singing, clapping, dancing - and gradually builds towards more complex music-making.
What makes it special:
Begins with speech patterns and natural rhythms
Uses instruments designed for immediate musical success
Combines speech, singing, movement and instruments
Emphasises creation and improvisation from the very beginning
Focuses on group music-making and cooperation
Benefits for different learners:
For children:
Builds confidence through immediate success experiences
Develops teamwork and listening skills through ensemble playing
Nurtures creativity through improvisation opportunities
Creates pathways to both traditional and contemporary music styles
For adult beginners:
Provides accessible entry points without technical barriers
Builds musical confidence through gradual skill development
Offers social connection through ensemble playing
Makes composition and improvisation approachable
For professionals:
Provides creative teaching tools for students of all levels
Offers fresh approaches to composition and improvisation
Enhances ensemble teaching skills
Reconnects professional musicians with musical play and joy
Orff activities might include layering body percussion patterns, creating ostinatos (repeated musical patterns) on xylophones to accompany songs, or developing movement sequences that express musical structure. The emphasis on creativity and play makes this approach valuable for learners at any stage who want to develop their compositional and improvisational abilities.
🎶 Kodály Method

Zoltán Kodály, a Hungarian composer and folk music enthusiast, believed music education should be available to everyone. He championed singing as the foundation of all musicianship - an instrument everyone carries with them always.
What makes it special:
Uses the singing voice as the primary instrument
Builds on familiar musical material appropriate to age and background
Introduces concepts in a carefully sequenced order
Uses hand signs and syllables (do, re, mi) to make abstract concepts concrete
Develops music reading and writing alongside singing skills
Benefits for different learners:
For children:
Develops strong aural skills and pitch accuracy
Builds lifelong singing confidence and technique
Creates a solid foundation for later instrumental study
Connects children to cultural heritage through folk songs
For adult beginners:
Provides structured approach to developing musicianship
Builds skills that transfer across various musical activities
Develops the singing voice without requiring prior experience
Creates strong sight-reading abilities
For professionals:
Enhances inner hearing and sight-reading
Strengthens teaching of theory through practical application
Provides tools for teaching aural skills systematically
Offers solutions for addressing advanced choral challenges
A Kodály-inspired session might involve discovering the pentatonic scale through folk songs, using hand signs to physically experience intervallic relationships, or breaking down complex rhythms using syllables. These approaches work equally well for young beginners and advanced musicians seeking to deepen their understanding of music theory through practical application.
🎻 Suzuki Method

Shinichi Suzuki, a Japanese violinist, made a revolutionary observation: every Japanese child learns to speak Japanese fluently! He reasoned that if we can master something as complex as language through listening and imitation, we could learn music the same way.
What makes it special:
Learning by ear before learning to read music (like speaking before reading)
Emphasis on daily listening to develop musical memory and sensitivity
Supportive learning environment with positive reinforcement
Group experiences complement individual instruction
Focus on developing beautiful tone from the beginning
Benefits for different learners:
For children:
Develops exceptional listening skills and memory
Creates a supportive triangle of teacher-parent-child
Builds technical facility from very young ages
Fosters community through group classes
For adult beginners:
Builds confidence through mastery of small steps
Develops listening skills often overlooked in traditional approaches
Creates a supportive community of fellow learners
Emphasises tone production from the beginning
For professionals:
Provides systematic teaching sequences for technical development
Offers tools for teaching tone production and expressivity
Presents models for creating supportive learning communities
Demonstrates how to build repertoire systematically
While originally developed for children, Suzuki principles have been successfully adapted for adult beginners and professionals seeking to refine their technique or teaching. The emphasis on listening, tone production, and breaking skills into manageable steps creates a supportive framework for learners at any stage.
Other Methods and Philosophies

There are many other philosophies that shape music education. Here are just a few:
Edwin Gordon's Music Learning Theory (MLT)
Gordon spent decades researching how we learn music, developing a comprehensive theory of audiation - thinking in music the way we think in language.
Benefits across age groups:
For children: Developing flexible musical thinking during the critical period when aptitude is still developing
For adult beginners: Building strong foundations in musical comprehension, not just performance
For professionals: Providing research-based tools for addressing gaps in musical understanding and teaching
World Music Pedagogy (WMP)
This approach recognises music as a global human expression and introduces learners to diverse musical traditions.
Benefits across age groups:
For children: Developing open ears and cultural awareness from the beginning
For adult beginners: Offering multiple entry points into music-making through diverse traditions
For professionals: Expanding musical vocabulary and performance techniques beyond Western classical traditions
Waldorf-inspired music education
In Waldorf education, music is woven into daily rhythms and integrated with storytelling, movement, and seasonal celebrations.
Benefits across age groups:
For children: Experiencing music as an integral part of life, not an isolated subject
For adult beginners: Connecting music to broader human experiences and natural cycles
For professionals: Finding fresh inspiration by connecting music to other art forms and life experiences
Montessori music education
Maria Montessori believed in sensitive periods for developing musical awareness and created materials that allow for self-directed exploration of musical concepts.
Benefits across age groups:
For children: Developing independence and sensory refinement through exploration
For adult beginners: Building confidence through self-paced discovery
For professionals: Gaining insights into sequential skill development and material design
Each of these approaches brings something unique, and all aim to make music accessible, expressive and rooted in experience.
Do You Have to Choose Just One?

Absolutely not. All of these methods are just different ways of entering the same musical world. Some students flourish with more of a focus on structure and sequencing, others benefit from more movement and play.
Finding your path:
For parents: Consider your child's learning style, interests, and personality when exploring options. A physically active child might thrive with Dalcroze movement activities, while a systematic learner might benefit from Kodály's sequential approach.
For adult beginners: Reflect on your goals, previous experiences with music, and what aspects of music-making most appeal to you. If you're intimidated by reading notation, Suzuki or Orff approaches might provide accessible entry points.
For teachers: Expanding your toolkit with techniques from multiple methods allows you to meet diverse student needs and keep your teaching fresh and engaging.
For professionals: Exploring different pedagogical approaches can revitalise your performance, address technical challenges, and expand your teaching capabilities.
The most effective musicians and teachers often draw from multiple methods, adapting their approach based on specific goals and contexts, while maintaining the core principle they all share: making musical learning meaningful, joyful, and accessible. However, some teachers are certified specialists in one or more of these methods, so if you are particularly interested in one of them, you can hone in on that.
How I Teach

If you're new here, hi! I'm Kayla Collingwood - a New Zealand-born, Paris-based classical singer, educator, and creator.
In my lessons and workshops, I draw from all of these traditions, along with insights from voice work, theatre, storytelling, and my years of experience performing and teaching. I don't follow any single method rigidly. Instead, I aim to build lessons that:
Meet each learner where they are developmentally, regardless of age
Develop genuine musicality, not just technical skills
Make music learning playful and joyful
Connect musicians to diverse musical traditions
Build skills that transfer across all musical (and life!) activities
I teach adults and children in Paris and online (depending on ages and the lesson type). I offer 3 streams of lessons:
Singing lessons - any genre, with a classical foundation
Voice/stagecraft for wellbeing - personal development classes drawing from principles of arts training!
Classical Music Immersion - from babies and young children in éveil musical classes, to school-aged children, teens, adults wanting to engage with classical music, and professionals seeking to dive deeper into repertoire knowledge and music history.
I offer a personalised, joyful way into music that supports long-term growth and expression!
👉 Explore my lessons here or get in touch for more information!
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